Researchers who conduct culturally competent research tend to be passionate about what they do but frustrated by a lack of funding.
"It's very difficult to get cultural treatment research funded that doesn't include a biological component," says sociocultural researcher Gordon C. Nagayama Hall, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Oregon.
There is an exception, however, field leaders say. Called the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Instituteopens in new window (see Funding for patient-centered research), this non-governmental agency, created in 2010 under the Affordable Care Act, has received millions of dollars to support research that is mandated to include patients and other stakeholders in the initial research team. In 2013 alone, the institute funded 71 three-year research projects, or contracts, for more than $114 million.
That includes projects with an ethnic and sociocultural focus, says Georgetown University psychologist Alfiee Breland-Noble, PhD, who sits on an institute advisory board that addresses disparities. About a fifth of the institute's dollars go to culturally relevant research, she estimates.
That funders are still interested in supporting this kind of work speaks to its important mission of providing high-quality health and mental health treatment for all U.S. citizens, regardless of ethnicity or culture, she adds.
"Everyone should have the opportunity to get care that feels relevant and OK to them," Breland-Noble says. "I encourage researchers who do this work to continue to seek resources, to seek places that are receptive to this kind of work — and not to quit."
— Tori DeAngelis
